The photo snapped after the wedding in the justice of the peace’s Framingham condo shows five people. There’s a blonde-haired bride next to her new husband, the bride’s close friend, prominent businesswoman Maura Carney and her racetrack owner father George Carney.

The photo was taken to bolster a marriage-fraud scheme to keep the German national bride, Lilly Rempel, in the country, federal prosecutor Jeffrey M. Cohen told a jury in opening statements in U.S. District Court Tuesday.

Maureen Boyle

The photo snapped after the wedding in the justice of the peace’s Framingham condo shows five people.

There’s a blonde-haired bride next to her new husband, the bride’s close friend, prominent businesswoman Maura Carney and her racetrack owner father George Carney.

The photo was taken to bolster a marriage-fraud scheme to keep the German national bride, Lilly Rempel, in the country, federal prosecutor Jeffrey M. Cohen told a jury in opening statements in U.S. District Court Tuesday.

Maura Carney of Brockton and Rempel of Taunton are on trial before Judge Joseph L. Tauro.

They face federal charges of conspiring to commit marriage fraud by convincing former Brockton police officer Lon Elliott to marry the former nanny in what prosecutors allege was a sham marriage designed to circumvent the immigration laws.

Elliott pleaded guilty in the case and is set to testify under a plea deal with the government. The prosecutor said Elliott and Rempel never lived together – something the ex-cop’s son will testify to – and never intended to live together.

Cohen told the jury Rempel – who had come to the United States several times on tourist visas but was denied a student visa – could have stayed in the country through proper channels, but that Carney decided to do it differently.

There was nothing fraudulent about the marriage – just the story now being told by the groom, a fired police sergeant turned key prosecution witness in the case, the defense attorneys told the court.

Elliott “has absolutely no fidelity to the truth,” Carney’s attorney, Robert Goldstein, told the jury.

Goldstein said his client did nothing wrong. “Maura Carney has committed no criminal offense,” he said.

Rempel’s attorney, Charles McGinty, told the jury Elliott first claimed the marriage was a sham arranged by Carney when he began dating an old friend who works at Brockton District Court. McGinty told jurors Elliott concocted the lie to hide his marriage, and the story spiraled from there and resulted in federal charges.

McGinty said Rempel had once been a nanny in Hanover for Chris Carney, Maura’s brother, by day and for his grandmother in Brockton overnight before returning to her family in Germany for a time before returning to the United States.

He said his client had come into the country several times on 90-day tourist visas, but was denied the longer student visa she sought to attend Massasoit Community College.

He said Rempel and Elliott had known each other for some time and had dated before getting married.

“She needed him and loved him,” McGinty told the jury.

Geri Weinstein, the justice of peace who married Remple and Elliott, testified Tuesday that Maura Carney had called her, asking if she performed marriages at her home, then made arrangements for the ceremony.

Weinstein testified there were five people at the 10-to-15 minute ceremony, and that George Carney paid the $150 fee in cash.

Weinstein said she hadn’t met the couple or the Carneys before the wedding. She said has performed other weddings at her condominium and the ceremony was not unusual.

Two officials from the U.S. Citizens and Immigration Service, Michael Spaniol and Jason Chagnon, also testified about paperwork filed by Elliott and Rempel to allow her to stay in the country.

Chagnon said they supplied proof of marriage and signed paperwork saying they were living in Abington.

The trial is set to resume today and could wrap up by the end of the week.